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The Aurora Club the Forgotten Jazz Club with a Notorious Past
I was doing work across street from this building and figured it had a story to be told and I was right
Every one Knows about The Crawford Grill and Walt Harper's Attic when it came to great Jazz Clubs in the Pittsburgh Region.
But there was another club as well The Aurora which is not as well known or acknowledged due to its ties to local mob gambling rackets and violent activities both with in and outside the club which resulted in at least 2 homicide
Which resulted in its forced closure in 1999.
Located at 5th and 11 Pride street in Pittsburgh's Uptown in what was filled with stores of Jewish Garment Jobbers who sold clothing wholesale . The rather unassuming Red Brick Building is now sadly in total decay and home to rats and junkies .
But back in the day Upstairs the finest Jazz could be heard . While in the basement mob bookies meet counted there money .
The building was owned by Anthony"tony" Ripepi since 1950 a well known local mobster and for many years it ran under the radar of law enforcement .
with a protected status from bribes of police and others .
The first floor served many different stores over the years and several celebrities are known to have patronized the club including Muhammad Ali first wife who sang there and Hubert Humphrey who stopped by for an evening of entertainment .
But the club became known as a trouble spot and after a person was killed outside the club in 1984 local councilman Sula Udin vowed to close it which he did around 2000. ad the building has been decaying and collapsing since .
An excellent article with more details can be found at link below
https://blog.historian4hire.net/2020/03/25/the-aurora-club/
Who was the Haystack Man they found in Beaver County Pa.
Its 1911 and a farmer from Chippewa working his fields finds a man half frozen in a stack of hay.
He does not know who he was or where he came from and he is taken to a local asylum where he is properly taken care of but never recovers his identity to become known only as Haystack Jack .
It is believed he may have been a cowboy because of ranches and such he recalled but no one was able to run down which one it was or like many drifters if there was ever a record of him working there.
Was he a victim of a mugging tossed off a train running thru area ? No one knows and as time passes chances are even with DNA if they can recover it they will never find out .
Jack Haystacks is but one of many such mystery people in late 1800s early 1900s who ended up in asylums all over the country unable to tell there story's .
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